Broadband & Community Broadband

What all community wireless networks—commercial (WISP), municipal and community nonprofit—have in common is the unlicensed spectrum they use to transmit signals. Opening more low-frequency spectrum – such as the unused TV channels – is therefore the “rocket fuel” needed to facilitate and scale up community wireless networks, as well as home and business WiFi networks. Unlicensed, or open spectrum, refers to segments of the airwaves that have not been licensed by the government for exclusive use by one company or other entity.

This paper takes account of new information to update an earlier New America Issue Brief by the same authors: “Why Unlicensed Use of the White Space in the TV Bands Will Not Cause Interference to DTV Viewers” (October 2005).

NAF, et al. vigorously oppose adoption of the Notice as proposed. The proposed rules virtually replicate the 2002 Petition by Progeny LMS, LLC (Progeny Petition), which attracted considerable opposition from a broad cross-section of industry groups. Other than the continued failure of the L-LMS Band -- a risk reflected in the absurdly low prices the licenses brought at auction -- the NPRM offers no justification for adopting the proposal.

From the fire fighters who died on 9/11 to the rescue workers struggling to help victims of Hurricane Katrina, recent crises have demonstrated that the absence of reliable and interoperable voice and data communications among public safety agencies is an urgent national dilemma.

OVERVIEW

In both their comments and reply comments, broadcasters seeking expanded coverage via distributed transmission system technologies (DTS) continue to fail to acknowledge the huge opportunity costs associated with the massive expansion in geographic service area rights that they are requesting. NAF et al. described these opportunity costs in its own comments and sees no reason to repeat itself here.

April 6, 2006

The Honorable Marsha Blackburn
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C 20515

The Honorable Jay Inslee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C 20515

The Honorable Tammy Baldwin
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C 20515

Dear Representatives Blackburn, Inslee and Baldwin:

updated January 10, 2007 

In November 2002, the FCC’s Spectrum Policy Task Force released a report calling for shifting large amounts of spectrum from the current command and control allocation system to both unlicensed and licensed flexible-use service. Since then, the FCC has started numerous proceedings to follow through on these recommendations. But whereas the proceedings granting flexible use to incumbent license holders and others have been fast tracked and completed, the proceedings seeking to allocate more unlicensed spectrum have, with only one notable exception, been sidetracked.

On May 12, 2004, the FCC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) proposing unlicensed use of unused TV channels 2-to-51 (Docket 04-186). When the DTV transition ends in early 2009, most of the nation’s 210 TV markets will have between 10 and 40 unassigned channels reserved for broadcasting, but not in use. The FCC proposal would allow a new generation of wireless broadband devices to utilize the vacant TV channels in each local market for WiFi and other unlicensed technologies.

SUMMARY